Counterparty to Convert Card Game Players into Bitcoin Users

Counterparty enters the non-Bitcoin world by teaming up with the physical card game Force of Will as it prepares to launch its first digital game assets.

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Counterparty, the peer-to-peer platform built on the Bitcoin Blockchain, enters the non-Bitcoin world by teaming up with the physical card game Force of Will as it prepares to launch its first digital game assets.

The popular Japanese card game, Force of Will, is launching tokenized game items on Counterparty with the Force of Will Battle Simulator platform is expected to launch mid-September.

Cointelegraph spoke to Trevor Altpeter, the director of the Counterparty Foundation, and Koji Higashi, co-founder of IndieSquare, about the work with Force of Will.

Higashi notes:

“This is a great opportunity for us to prove how Blockchain tech and tokens can actually bring utility to regular people and enable whole new possibilities.”

What is Force of Will?

Force of Will is one of the most popular card games selling cards in more than 30 countries and ranks 4th in sales volume in North America. According to the Hobby Channel rankings for collectible games, Force of Will trails behind Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh and Magic: The Gathering in terms of popularity.

Since its launch in North America in February 2015, Force of Will became an instant hit, passing 1,000 official distributors within the first year of its release in North America alone, then quickly spreading across the world at a fast rate.

Teaming up with two existing Counterparty projects – IndieSquare and Spells of Genesis – Force of Will is scheduled to unveil its platform enabling game developers to put items on the Blockchain with no prior knowledge of Bitcoin.

As an incredibly successful physical card trading game with a community of over 100,000 players, IndieSquare and Spells of Genesis realized the potential of working with Force of Will, helping to open up the world of Bitcoin to non-Bitcoin users.

Attracting new users to Bitcoin

As a relatively new game in the Bitcoin industry, Force of Will decided to utilize the Counterparty protocol because the borderless nature of the Blockchain technology inspired them. In a press release, CEO of Force of Will, Eiji Shishido, said that the concept of Force of Will is connecting the world and believes there is a lot of similarity between the two.

Shishido explains:

“Challenging new things has its own value in my opinion. Force of Will is not an online game currently, but we wanted to bring in a new value to the game industry. We wanted to offer Force of Will players a whole new experience and the new value proposition is based on the cutting edge technology.”

Speaking to Cointelegraph, director of the Counterparty Foundation, Trevor Altpeter, said that many Bitcoin uses so far are controversial in the eyes of non-Bitcoin users.

He says:

“Digital game items are an underserved market that can create new users for Bitcoin and Counterparty without relying on the users to also be passionate about cryptocurrency. Tokenized game items will create innovation in gaming which may eventually receive mainstream interest and use.”

Koji Higashi said that the community numbers linked to Force of Will is going to have a major impact on Counterparty and the Bitcoin ecosystem. Speaking to Cointelegraph, he said that the 100,000 Force of Will players are people who don’t understand Bitcoin, Counterparty or Blockchain and just want something that works and benefits them.

The future of digital game assets

Force of Will and the Counterparty ecosystem will benefit from rising popularity in digital game assets. Altpeter believes that tokenized game items will create innovation in the gaming industry, but it will also allow digital game economies to grow without restraint for the first time.

He says to Cointelegraph:

“There are examples of game economies that hit a ceiling due to limitations imposed by payment processors and the centralized nature of the assets. Counterparty assets provide true ownership so maybe these growing game economies can reach new heights.

If Force of Will experiences success then Counterparty and Bitcoin will gain legitimacy as the established platform for digital game assets. “Force of Will is gaining a valuable first mover advantage through the partnerships it has with Counterparty projects.”